Cats in Stuttgart

5 May, 2001

This was a most interesting experience, I must confess. Dad and I were in Germany visiting my brother Vincent at his Army base in Bamberg. At my request he had gotten us tickets to see Cats in Stuttgart, a 2-3 hour drive from the base. He even drove us there on the Autobahn in his little Toyota. (In’nt he sweet?) The weather in Germany so far had been lovely and sunny, but on this day it decided to turn cold and rainy. So much for the sightseeing we had planned to do in Stuttgart before the show. We spent a rather dismal time wandering around, doing nothing much and topping it off with dinner at McDonald’s. (What an anticlimax.) But Cats more than made up for it.

The show has moved to the SI Centrum in Stuttgart from the Hamburger Operettenhaus. The Centrum is a large, modern building (compared to all the beautiful, old architecture we had seen so far in our trip) with bar, disco, restaurant, and whatever else your little heart might desire, none of which we bothered with. First thing I did upon entering the foyer was locate the booth where they were selling picture brochures, and also CDs as it turned out. The CD is from the original Hamburg production and includes Pekes and Pollicles and Growltiger (ga-roovy!), but cuts short the Beetles’ Tattoo, Macavity’s fight, and Mistoffelees’ dance (oh well). The brochure was very extensive, with lots of big colour pictures, including one from Moments of Happiness with everyone labeled. (Wow, what a novel idea!) It also has lots of behind the scenes stuff, all in German, of course. (Darn.) I got both CD and brochure, naturally. Vince, who speaks more German than I do (not saying much), inquired for me about prices and such.

Also in the foyer was Growltiger’s pirate boat set from the original Hamburg production. And in the little lobby before you go into the theatre they had mannequins of some of the characters, specifically Jellylorum, Bombalurina, and Tugger. The ushers wore these absolutely darling fuzzy leopard-print jackets with a single long tail attached at the back. (Forget a Cats T-shirt, I want one of those!) We three were sitting up in the first row of the mezzanine, all the way on the left. This was definitely a new perspective on the show for me, but unfortunately some of the junk was partially blocking our view of the stage right area. The swing announcements were made over the loud speaker, and they were in German, so it wasn’t until after the show by studying the program that I determined that Mayumi Omagari was standing in for Victoria. (Vince, though unable to catch the names, assured me that there had just been one.)

So the show starts, and so far it’s pretty much like Broadway. The Cats came out with their green eyes and I twisted and turned in my seat, hoping some would come up to us. I did catch a glimpse of Victoria and Tumblebrutus as they zipped by at the back.

The cast and choreography more or less follow the Broadway show, that is they have Pouncival, Tumblebrutus, Sillabub, and no Etcetera or Electra. You all know by now that I pay close attention to the first line of the musical to help form my first impression of Munkustrap. Adrian Becker didn’t impress me much initially, I’m afraid. Dancing was quite good, though, and he made a very handsome silver tabby. Tugger was the Cat on the trapeze; if he had a spotter, he or she was well hidden. The boot that we are all so used to seeing was thrown on from the side rather than dropped from above. Frankly, I think this looks more realistic. The Cats turned to hiss at the unseen thrower before continuing.

The Naming of Cats (Das Benennen von Katzen) was not so great, I thought. They didn’t seem able to make the German translation fit the rhythm of the music. It was somewhat grating. But we did get a little visitor towards the end. Shortly after the Cats came down from the stage I became aware of a single voice getting closer and closer. A female voice if I was any judge. Then on “When you notice a cat in profound meditation (Wenn die katze mal sehr intensiv meditiert),” Sillabub popped out of a door right next to us and darted her head about, taking in everyone and everything. Dad was sitting on the aisle resting his arm on the rail. She reached tentatively toward his hand and I think touched him very lightly before backing away. She was an adorable little thing.

As I said, Victoria was played by a swing and she seemed a little shaky during her Invitation dance. Mistoffelees did a fine job, though. He had an awfully big grin, too. Maybe I am too used to Julius Sermonia’s cute Asian features, but it didn’t seem quite right. And my opinion of Munkustrap improved with this part. I guess you can’t get the first line perfect every time. (Though Jeffry always seemed to.)

Gumbie Cat (Die Gumbie-Katze) was quite cute. Mistoff, sitting atop the car trunk, knocked before opening it. Jenny came out somewhat reluctantly. She was played by Tersia Potgieter, a magnificent alto, one of the best I’ve ever heard. And incidentally, she is called Jenny Fleckenfell in Germany. (My sources say that fleckenfell means spotted skin.) The four mice were played by Victoria, Rumpelteazer, Sillabub, and Tumblebrutus. Mungojerrie was the first Cockroach to come out and be disciplined by Jenny. And the Cockroach to chase Jenny with a fork was actually Sillabub. I always thought that kitten had a mischievous streak in her!

Thierry Gondet as Tugger was brilliant! Very reminiscent of Andy Karl from the American Tour, though he bears a physical resemblance to Michael Gruber. (What a combo!) No chains on his costume, though. Both Munkustrap and Mistoffelees delivered the “terrible bore” line. (Which was actually "Der Rum Tum Tugger ist ein laestiger Clown!" Seems appropriate.) The Cat he leaned against was Pouncival, who peeked his face around that huge ruff and nuzzled Tugger with his head. (Aaawwww!) For the Tugger dance he jumped off the stage, sniffed a girl in the second row, went on, sniffed a girl in the fifth row, moved on, sniffed a girl in the back row of the first orchestra section, moved on, finally selected a girl in the first row of the second section, grabbed her out of her seat and tangoed down the aisle with her. On the way back, he stopped to check that girl in the second row again before jumping back up on the stage. Wow! Tugger really likes to play the field, don’t he? Now so far in the show, I had hardly noticed that it was being performed in a language foreign to my ears; I know the original English libretto by heart after all. J But during Tugger’s final “abou-ou-ou”s I was brought up short by the language barrier. After the first one the girls started squealing, so he grinned and put even more feeling into the second round. The girls squealed even louder and then Tugger said something…in German. He seemed to be talking to himself, psyching himself for the final notes, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you exactly what he said. Teazer was the one to go nuts at the end. He looked at her for a minute then held up a paw. She froze. He blew on her gently and she slowly fell over backwards. Excellent!

Grizabella interrupted the free-for-all dance that followed and the mood swiftly changed. Munk took up his defensive stance in front of her, and Tumblebrutus (who had to be the most mischievous kitten in this cast) mocked him at the back of the stage, drawing himself up the same way only slightly exaggerated. I think it was Jellylorum who cuffed him lightly and he quickly retreated. It was not long after that, though, that he reached out and scratched Grizabella, eliciting a lot of hissing from the adults. He just can’t seem to stay out of trouble, can he?

Bustopher Muerr came on as Grizabella left. As he came to the front of the stage he took his flower off, sniffed it, then threw it to a girl in the front row. But the front row seats don’t press right up to the stage the way they do at the Winter Garden and he didn’t quite reach her; she had to lean forward to catch it. Mistoffelees dusted off the hat with his tail before Bustopher sat down. The song went much as it usually did on Broadway, but there were one or two cute bits. As everyone was singing the chorus after Bustopher’s solo, Pounce and Tumble were both sitting in front of him and Pounce actually leaned back against his leg and rubbed his head against him. Very affectionate little kitten, isn’t he? After Bustopher got up from the hat Plato grabbed it, took it upstage a little and began playing with it, nosing around it and such. Coricopat joined him and tried to get the hat away from him, but Plato didn't want to share. Then it was time to line up to receive Bustopher. Plato and Cori stood next to each other, Plato kneeling on the hat. They were both acknowledged by him, and when he had passed, Cori made Plato get off the hat so he could try kneeling on it. Surprisingly, none of the adult Cats noticed this goofing off; at least they weren’t remonstrated for it. I think it was Plato who finally took the hat offstage.

There’s a crash of thunder and then a siren. An American siren, though, the kind that goes waaaaAAAHHHH-AAAaaahhhh, instead of dee-DEE-dee-DEE. I had thought the latter was the standard European siren, in fact that was all I had heard in the way of sirens since setting foot on German soil. But then they seemed to get nearly everything else from Broadway; perhaps they got their sound effects tape as well. After the Cats clear the stage we heard a cute little snicker and out popped M&R with their loot in large striped socks. They made a wicked little pair, but much to my surprise Teazer was just about as big as her partner in crime. This was especially obvious at the end when they went to do their cartwheel. Teazer stood with her legs spread and slapped her thighs, at which Mungo turned himself over to begin the cartwheel. Wow! That’s the first time I’ve seen it done that way, but it seemed to work quite well.

Mistoffelees was sent off to fetch Old Deuteronomy and Munk began singing. Tugger came out and positioned himself on the tire; as he moved we could hear some kind of static over the speakers. Then when he sang, horror of horrors, his mic went out! I think we once speculated on the forum what a performer might do in that situation, and I just want to mention for MunkBway’s benefit that no, Thierry Gondet did not grab Adrian Becker and try to sing into his forehead. He just sang as loudly as he could without getting too loud for the mood of the song, and Adrian, bless his heart, did his best to balance at the part where they had to sing together. I remember thinking to myself, Thank goodness this is a short number! (The performers were probably thinking that, too.)

Now for Pekes and Pollicles, which I had been looking forward to with great anticipation. I mean the song is already a little hard to sing without spraining your tongue in English, so you can imagine what it’s like in German! Just look at what the title translates to: "Von der Furchtbaren Schlacht Zwischen den Pekies und Pollicles und das Marschlied der Pollicle Hunde." What a mouthful! But Adrian did a fine job. During the opening four brass punches Munkustrap swept around the stage seeing that all was in readiness. Tugger jumped down off the tire and casually strode up behind him. On the fourth punch Munk turned and Tugger did a little ta-da! before being shooed off the stage. In the German version the dogs all say “raur” instead of bark. M&R were the first peke and pollicle. When doing their little raur Mungo was trying to coordinate it by pointing to Teazer when she said raur, then at himself when he said raur (you got the idea that he had had trouble with it before). But even so he messed it up, pointing at Teazer and saying raur at the same time. Teazer looked very put out; Mungo looked puzzled, as if he couldn’t figure out how it had happened. So they did it again, Mungo still trying to coordinate, but he messed up yet again, much to the annoyance of Teazer and Munkus. Munk soothed Teazer’s bruised feelings and sent her away, then bopped Mungo on the head before sending him away. Mungo, bless him, was still trying to work out where he’d gone wrong. But the song continued and he went to join the other pollicles. Now we are all used to Tugger coming on with his contrived bagpipes. In this show the bag part of the set-up was a whoopee cushion. Seemed terribly appropriate to me. Munk chased him off nonetheless. We came to the part in the song where the dogs began yelling raur loudly. “Nun…” Munkustrap began, realized he couldn’t be heard, ran back to the tire and GROWLED at them. Very menacing I must say, he certainly frightened Tumblebrutus. That little kitten was crouched close to the tire at the time, and when Munk growled he immediately doffed his shoe box and hand boxes and stuck his hands under his armpits in a manner that seemed to say, “I didn’t do anything! I’m completely innocent!” As Munkus continued, Tumble put his shoe box back on and started to put boxes back on his hands. But Plato, sitting next to him, had also taken off his boxes, and they accidentally got switched. Tumble looked at the ones he wore, then looked at Plato’s, and snatched his own back. Finally came the Great Rumpus Cat! Or Raufbold Katz as he is known in Germany. There was no startrap, so he came on from behind the tire and struck a pose. The dogs whimpered as he came down to join Munkustrap, with choreography very similar to the video. The costume itself was more or less the same as the one Keith always wore on Broadway, including the all-covering mask, but the suit was quite clearly padded, giving him an even more muscle-bound super-hero look. But for all his fierce posings, the RK seemed quite an affectionate kitty. As Munk sang about the police dog returning to his beat, Raufbold was trying to nuzzle his shoulder; Munkus discouraged it, though. Later as Old D sang about coming to dust, the RK was slinking quickly but discreetly toward the wings, though not without nuzzling Victoria and Teazer as he went.

Song of the Jellicles went nicely. (I think I am finally at the point where the opening strains don’t bring back unpleasant memories of the audience disturbance on Broadway.) Alonzo came slinking on (not two minutes after shedding his RK costume, not bad!) and he was very nearly as sexy as Lenny. J Though he didn’t do the octave drop on “black…and white.” Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think it couldn’t have been Bas Leijendekker playing Alonzo that night. I distinctly remember that Alonzo had a lovely hawk nose, and I look at Bas’ pic in the program and he clearly doesn’t. I’m not sure who it would have been, but I digress. After Bomba delivered her line “pflegen wir uns nach Jellicle Brauch” she had to discourage the amorous attentions of Asparagus. (Geez!) Remember that Tugger’s mic went out earlier? Apparently they weren’t able to do anything with it quickly. He does have a line in this number, but it’s one measly spoken line. Nevertheless, in true Tugger form he came swaggering out of the wings with a hand held mic. He delivered his line, then stood there for a moment. The female kittens, however, seemed to lose interest in him quickly and moved to their positions for the Ball. Tugger looked around, saw himself abandoned, shrugged, and strode casually off the stage, presumably to give up his hand held.

For that little ballroom bit at the beginning of the Ball, I noticed several same sex couples, whereas on Broadway they only had one (Mistoffelees and Mungojerrie). Tumblebrutus was the one to lift Victoria, but he laid her down across Mistoffelees, not Skimble. (Hmmm, interesting…) When the Cats sensed something amiss Tumble jumped up, sniffed the air, and ran all the way around the front of the group before spotting Grizabella and driving her off with a hiss and swat. The Cats began the Ball anew, but from my elevated seat I noticed that Grizabella had not completely retreated. She stood on the car trying to mimic the dance that the other Cats were doing. But then she noticed Old D watching her. He held out a paw to her, but she was obviously chagrined and quickly left. Toward the end of the Ball, Tugger was standing on top of the car grooving to the music, and he was really gettin’ down with his bad self, as the saying goes. He seemed completely oblivious to his surroundings. Bomba was standing on the tire behind Munkustrap. She noticed Tugger doing his one cat show and began giving Munkus a full body rub while watching him. If he saw it, Tugger didn’t seem to care.

Finally the first half closed with Memory (Erinnerung). Nicole Seiger as Grizabella did an excellent job. She is quite one of the best Grizabellas I’ve ever heard. She did get a bit smaltzy toward the end of the song, but that seems to be unavoidable with this number.

During the interval I dragged Vince out to the lobby with me to help translate at the souvenir booth. Among the things I was interested in was an adorable umbrella that had the Cats eyes all over it. It wasn’t clearly marked, though, so I told Vince to ask the lady behind the counter how much it cost.

“I don’t know the word for umbrella,” he protested.

“Just point!” I urged.

He did so, and we found out that an umbrella is called a regenshirm. (Learn something new every day.) After making my purchases I was all set to head back into the theatre.

“Do you want anything from the bar?” Vince asked suddenly.

“No! Are you nuts?” I exclaimed. “I don’t need any alcohol on board when I’m seeing Cats.”

“Not even any coffee?” Vince pressed. (Well he knew that I had quickly fallen in love with German coffee.)

“No, thank you,” I assured him. “I don’t need any caffeine either. Not till after the show anyway.”

I hurried back into the theatre well ahead of my male relatives; I wanted to make sure I was there in time to see any kitty antics that might occur as the interval was ending. Dad and Vince had time to join me, though, before anything happened. Several Cats had come back onstage when suddenly we heard a cry below. Leaning forward we saw that Tumblebrutus was crawling over the entire front orchestra section to get to the stage, parting the people in front like the Red Sea. It was the cutest, most cat-like thing I have ever seen in a performance! Tumblebrutus easily wins the cutest kitty of the evening award. More Cats returned to the stage the more conventional way, i.e. running up the aisles. Mungojerrie made a little stop about halfway there to get petted by a nice lady on the outside aisle. Awww!

Moments was very beautiful. Jonathan Agar as Old D had a lovely bari-tenor voice. Sillabub, on the other hand, seemed like she was trying too hard to sound kittenish.

For Gus’ song, Old D sat on the tire with Pouncival, Sillabub, and Victoria all cuddled up to him. It made a charming tableau, and they were all very affectionate. Gus seemed rather put out whenever Jellylorum mentioned the pub, making a gesture as if to say, “You don’t need to tell them that.” He did a cute chortle for the line “let the cat out of the bag (liess ich die Katz' aus dem Sack).” I watched carefully and the kittens all started on “these kittens!” (Or diese Kaetzchen.) But they didn’t seem to be insulted so much. In fact they were cowering in much the same way that they cowered from Munkustrap during P&P. Easily frightened bunch. Gus bowed after finishing the main body of the song and we, of course, applauded, urged on by Jellylorum. Gus actually seemed startled by our response and waved us off in a semi-modest way before continuing.

The Growltiger sequence was similar to the American Tour version, in that a curtain dropped that said “Growltiger’s Letzte Schlacht”. ( I assume; I actually was paying too much attention to Gus to notice. He made his transformation and laughed raucously as the curtain lifted to reveal his ship and crew (no plank). The crew were Munkustrap, Tugger, Skimble, Mistoffelees, and Alonzo, and they were outfitted pretty much the same way as on Broadway. They seemed to be in constant danger of falling overboard, especially at the end of the first verse when Munkus turned the wheel hard and let it spin. For the abuse verse (as I like to call it) Growltiger smacked Mistoff, then knocked Tugger over. As the verse continued he held on to Tugger’s leg and kept abusing him, kind of doing the others over his shoulder as an afterthought. For the line “that mauled his missing ear (der ihm das Ohr geraubt)” the crew all began to laugh. Growltiger turned and glared at them and they quickly stopped. All but Mistoffelees, that is, who didn’t see him and kept laughing until Growltiger made him all too aware of his displeasure. Mistoff got very big-eyed then and his laugh ended in an “ooohhh!” Then Griddlebone came on, to the obvious delight of the crew, whom she paid little attention to. She avoided Mistoffelees completely, brushed past the others, saw Growltiger, and swooned back into the arms of Tugger and Alonzo. Lonz was trying to fan her with his hook. When Growltiger indicated his desire for privacy Munkus kicked the rest of the crew below deck then settled himself down with one foot propped up on the wheel. He tried to fold his hands behind his head, but his parrot was in the way. The Lovers’ Duet was pretty much what we have come to expect. When the Siamese came on, instead of shooing Munkustrap below deck they pushed him overboard. Well, I didn’t actually see that because I was watching the lovers having a little tiff. But I heard Munk let out a long scream, so I kind of assume that’s what happened. The fight with Genghis (Dschingis) was a bit weak, I thought, a bit too obviously staged. (Or maybe I’ve just seen it too many times.) Since there was no plank, Growltiger had to jump off the side. As the final chords rang the curtain we had seen before dropped down again, then a few seconds later it dropped completely off the rod and was whisked offstage. All in all, it was very nicely done.

Skimbleshanks was sleeping while sitting up on the stage left ramp, and his wake-up reaction was not very pronounced. Again the scene was much like Broadway. During the train-riding scene Sillabub switched places with Cassandra, and Teazer, Victoria, and Mungo were all goofing off together, but Skimble quickly set things right. After the line “a crank to shut the window should you sneeze (und ein Hebel fuer die Heizung, wenn man friert),” Rumpelteazer sneezed loudly…right in Mungojerrie’s ear. He started (as one might expect), then wiped out his ear with the end of his tail. The contrived train looked exactly like the one on Broadway (which I prefer over the video train). On alternating lines in that verse there was a flash and pop from the lamp and a toot from the tea kettle. And as the train fell apart the tea kettle let out a rather pitiful sounding toot. This next bit I didn’t see in the show, but in the picture brochure. It’s so cute, however, that I have to mention it. There are several posed pictures in there, and one is of the final pose for this song, Skimble with one foot on Alonzo’s shoulder and the other foot on Mungojerrie’s back. Everyone in the scene is either smiling or pretending to sing, except for Mungojerrie, who has an expression that clearly says, “Yeah, yeah, hurry up and take the picture, will ya?”

They had a recorded laugh for Macavity and the fake Macavity was positioned in a spot very near our seats. (Wow!) If the real Macavity laughed when he appeared I couldn’t hear it from where I was sitting. His song had just Demeter and Bomba at the beginning; Alonzo wasn’t there to shadow Demeter’s dancing. Demeter was pretty good but Bomba was excellent! Lovely alto voice, and if you see her program pic, she even looks like a Bombalurina. There were no guys to join the ladies at the end of the song; guess that’s an American thing. It seems to me that Coricopat and Tantomile weren’t as psychically aware as on Broadway, where they followed Demeter’s lead and urged the other Cats away from “Old D”. It also seemed to me that Demeter leaped rather willingly into Macavity’s arms. Well heck, I might, too, but it seems a bit out of character. Another place I had noticed that was on the American tour. The fight was virtually the same as on Broadway, but without the lift and spin that I have come to love so much. (Darn!) Instead, at the point where Alonzo would have flipped Macavity upside-down to begin the spin, he just flipped him over in a cartwheel like Mungojerrie does to Rumpelteazer in their song. It was then that I noticed that Macavity was much bigger than Alonzo, so I guess a lift and spin like that would probably be out of the question. Oh well. As Macavity went to short the lights the electricity seemed slow to respond. This gave me the opportunity to note that where there would have been a Coca-Cola sign on Broadway, here they had a big Michelin sign. Not neon, though.

It’s hard to tell when the language is foreign, but I don’t think Tugger seemed real concerned that the other Cats might scoff and not listen to him. He did a lovely job with the song, though. And his mic was working again, yay! Mistoffelees was perhaps not as dazzling as I have come to expect the Magical Cat to be; I counted twenty-two fouettes and he took them much slower. But he still did a fantastic job, and he had a passable voice. (Yes, he did sing part of his own song, a detail I’m not altogether fond of.) Couple other details: Pouncival was the one to catch the disk on the end of the coloured scarf. Near the end of the song when everyone was singing the chorus over and over, the Cats came down off the stage to cavort in the audience. I was leaning over the rail trying to watch their antics when I became aware of voices singing very close by. Coricopat and Tantomile had popped out of the same door Sillabub had used earlier and were singing to us. I couldn’t help noticing that Nikki Dyer as Tant had very high cheekbones and intense blue eyes. They left as quickly as they had come and returned to the stage. At the end of the song, Mistoff did the putting out of the spot light a little differently. Instead of boxing it down, he waved it smaller and smaller before blowing it out. The blow wasn’t very loud and I rather think the audience didn’t really notice. At least, there was no light titter from them as there always was on Broadway.

Here was Erinnerung again and Grizabella was lovely as before. Interesting to note, Sillabub still sounded annoyingly kittenish on her Daylight (Morgen) solo, but when she sang during Erinnerung she seemed to be using a normal voice. Perhaps she was trying to indicate that she had matured in the past couple minutes. Interesting thought.

For Journey (or Die Reise Zum Heavy-side Layer) the tire came up and forward as on Broadway. As soon as the tire had risen high enough Tumblebrutus got under it so he could play in the dry ice. He was sweeping it around himself and beckoning to Pouncival nearby. I could almost hear him saying, “Hey, Pounce, come stand in the dry ice. It’s fun!” Just before the tire started coming back down again, Pouncival did join Tumble in the dry ice, but only for a few seconds, then he popped back out again. (Scaredy cat!) Tumble, of course, got out before he was squooshed by the tire. Oh, and before I forget, Grizabella went up to the Heaviside on a stairway to heaven just like the one in the video.

Not much to tell for Ad-dressing (Ueber das Ansprechen vn Katzen). I did notice a few reactions to the mention of food, but none like what Lenny did.

Then the bows. For every production I’ve seen (including this one), Jenny, Jellylorum, and Gus all come out to bow wearing their alternate wigs. I wonder why they couldn’t do that for the Rumpus Cat and Macavity. The GRC mask would be easy enough to do quickly at least. I would have done some righteous screaming for certain Cats, but the Germans didn’t seem to go in much for that so I kept quiet. Instead the Germans did this encore clap (which I had already observed in action at a concert put on by Vincent’s band) where they all as one man starting clapping together in rhythm. The Cats came out for a second set of bows, this time in pairs. Some of the pairs were unusual; the ones I can remember were Gus and Bomba, Alonzo and Demeter, Tugger and Mistoffelees, and Old D and Grizabella. After that the music suddenly stopped, the encore clap kept going, then what to our wondering eyes should appear but a bunch of folks in jeans and Cats T-shirts. Aha, I realized, this must be the orchestra. They got to bow, too, which I thought was a nice touch. Then they went off and the Cats did a couple group bows until the music started up again and Tugger shouted, “Und wir singen!” I would have joined in the singing of the chorus from Mr Mistoffelees, but my German is deplorable so I just kind of hummed. The Cats pranced off the stage, Tugger leaving last.

Show over, so Dad, Vince, and I headed out to the lobby. As we came out we heard a steady, rhythmic thumping that we eventually realized must be the disco. As we got closer to the source I recognized it as the song I Will Survive…sung in German. Weeeeiiird! But it was even weirder when Vincent started dancing to it. Picture if you will a 6’1” (183 cm) young man in a suit with a military haircut trying to boogy in the lobby among the press of bodies trying to get to the bar. I was stuck somewhere between hysteria and mortification. “I do not know you!” I shouted over the din. “I am not with you!” Dad just laughed.

I would like to say that the trip back to the base was uneventful, but I’d be lying. Firstly there was a traffic jam in the tunnel heading back to Bamberg because of an accident that was being cleared up. Then there was also the fact that Autobahn exits are not very well labeled and we often found ourselves on the right road going in the wrong direction. Vince nearly gave Dad a mild heart attack once when he made an illegal left turn to get to the correct exit. But we eventually got back to Warner Barracks in one piece. It was great fun, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again if the opportunity presented itself. I doubt it will, though.

Now just for you, my loyal readers, I've scanned the program photos of all the actors we saw at this performance. And the bios; of course, they're in German. If that isn't a language you speak, consider it an education. :)

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